Republic Engineering Corporation
The Republic Engineering Corporation, or REC for short, is a manufacturing company founded by the New Republic shortly after the death of Emperor Palpatine. It is one of the principle military suppliers for the government, roughly equal with the Mon Calamari Shipyards in influence and number of ships throughout the fleet. The name of the company is derived from the names of its two major founding influences; Republic Fleet Systems and Alliance Underground Engineering. In some ways the Republic Engineering Corporation can be considered as close to a nationalized company as technically allowed under the New Republic charter. While the government has no direct control over REC, most of the board members and employees are former members of the Rebel Alliance and thus have a strong loyalty to the New Republic. Consequently, many of the Republic’s most important ship-building projects are handled by the company, such as the New Class program. =Products= Like Kuat Drive Yards or Sienar Fleet Systems, many of REC's designs are exclusive government contracts, but it does offer some products on the general market as well. Exclusive to the New Republic Capital Ships *''Agave''-class Picket Ship *''Defender''-class Assault Carrier *''Defender''-class Star Destroyer *''Endurance''-class Fleet Carrier *''Hajen''-class Fleet Tender *''Majestic''-class Heavy Cruiser *Marauder Missile Corvette *''Sacheen''-class Light Escort **''Sacheen''-class Light Escort Mark II *''Warrior''-class Gunship **''Warrior''-class Gunship Mark II Subcapital Ships *''Ferret''-class Reconnaissance Vessel *''Prowler''-class Reconnaissance Vessel Starfighters *Defender Starfighter Vehicles *Battle Scythe (with CEC) *MAS-2xB Self-Propelled Turbolaser (with Loronar) *T3-B Heavy Attack Tank *T3-Bh Heavy Attack Tank *T4-B Heavy Tank General Market Starships Capital Ships *''Chu'unthor''-class Praxeum Ship *Shieldship Subcapital Ships *''Solo''-class Combat Freighter (with SoroSuub and Fondor) Starfighters *Aurek Tactical Strikefighter *R-22 Spearhead *RZ-1 A-Wing Interceptor *LAF-250 Starfighter (with CEC) *Star Saber XC-01 Starfighter Vehicles Speeders *AV-22 Landspeeder *MT-16 Combat Speeder (with Incom) Tanks *MZ-8 Mobile Pulse Cannon *T1-B Hovertank *T2-B Repulsor Tank Droids *M7-series Combat Protocol Droid =History= Founding The beginning of the Republic Engineering Corporation ties in closely with that of the New Republic itself. It was founded and initially financed by the government soon after the Battle of Endor as a kind of spiritual successor to Republic Fleet Systems, which had served the Galactic Republic so faithfully up until the Clone Wars. In a sense, it was a tactic to show the galaxy that there would be a return to normalcy. Whereas the New Republic claimed to be the new incarnation of the Galactic Republic, REC would be the next RFS. In order to realize this goal, the Provisional Council of the New Republic knew that the company needed a strong CEO to lead it in its formative years. Several candidates were considered for the job, but one unlikely choice kept rising to the top: Sigarr Halomek, the charismatic younger brother of Alliance ace pilot, Rowen Halomek. While Sigarr’s resume wasn’t nearly as impressive as some of the other candidates, he proved in interviews that he had not only the perfect leadership qualities needed for the endeavor, but a solid business plan that would return the New Republic’s investment within the next year and start turning a profit the year after. After a close vote, Sigarr was installed as the CEO – with a catch. Due to some grumbling from dissatisfied council members, Sigarr’s job was dependent on his ability to fulfill his promises. If he failed to live up to the claims he made, he would be removed and replaced with one of the other candidates. Financial experts from across the galaxy were less forgiving. Most predicted doom for the new company and questioned the Provisional Council’s wisdom in selecting such an untested candidate. All doubters were soon proven wrong as Sigarr demonstrated his business acumen, enacting several measures to give REC a strong start. Rising Against Expectations Sigarr’s first official act as CEO was to capitalize on the company’s one flagship product that it had inherited from being formed primary from members of Alliance Underground Engineering: the A-wing. He had his engineering team begin work on an improved, standardized version of the starfighter which wouldn’t be as fragile or as finicky as the first generation A-wings. Within months REC had the first prototypes of the A-wing Mark II ready which Sigarr personally demonstrated to New Republic fleet brass. REC not only secured a contract to replace all the Mark I’s in the fleet with the new Mark II’s, but soon had orders for several more once the Mark II’s proved themselves in combat against enemy forces. Around the same time, Sigarr shrewdly hired on every member of the Yutrane-Trackata splinter group that had been so instrumental to Alliance ground forces since the earliest days of the Galactic Civil War. This immediately expanded REC’s production list and suddenly made the company invaluable to the New Republic’s army as well as its navy. This would have been impressive enough, but Sigarr wasn’t content to rest on his early successes. To provide further insurance that he would meet the goals he had promised to the Provisional Council, Sigarr was able to negotiate a partnership with Incom to produce the MT-16 Combat Speeder, as well as another joint production deal with SoroSuub and Fondor Independent Shipyards to create the ''Solo''-class Combat Freighter. The closest thing to a failure that REC experienced during this time period was trying to launch the Defender Ship Design Program, which was perhaps too ambitious for such a new company. While ship designs were drawn up, only the Defender Starfighter, a capable craft, saw production; the larger capital ships remained only concepts. However Sigarr didn't forget about the promising designs and shelved them until such time as the New Republic would be more open to them. To the surprise of almost everybody, the Republic Engineering Corporation was not only able to return the New Republic’s investment within a year, but showed greater profits than expected the year following. Sigarr had proven himself beyond all expectations, securing his position as CEO and making REC a profitable company in an amazingly short amount of time, but he had even grander visions on the horizon… Impossible Success By 6 ABY, REC had become a success story. It had a good-sized shipyard at Druckenwell but was still considered a smaller shipwright; somewhat akin to Slayn & Korpil. This would not stand with Sigarr, who felt that his company should be able to go shoulder-to-shoulder with the truly big companies like Kuat Drive Yards or the Corellian Engineering Corporation. Despite all assurances that it was likely something Sigarr wouldn't see within his lifetime, he was convinced that he could make it happen within the span of a decade and set to work enacting a strategy to make his dream a reality. His first step was to partner with Rebel Alliance hero Lando Calrissian, who was shopping around various shipyards trying to find someone to take a chance on his Shieldship idea. While other companies were telling Lando that the shieldship was impractical, impossible, or simply too expensive, Sigarr felt it could be done and that his people could do it. The final design, while still pricey, exceeded Lando's expectations. Even though the shieldship's sale potential was extremely limited, it netted the company two serious boons. For one, it served as an impressive display of the expertise that the Republic Engineering Corporation was capable of, and secondly, Lando's verbal endorsement of REC helped to give the company a certain credibility and legitimacy within the business world, as well as the galaxy at large, that it had lacked before. The success of the shieldship allowed Sigarr to strike while the iron was still hot and bring forth an extremely ambitious proposal to the Provisional Council which, if accepted, would catapult REC firmly into the realm of the big shipbuilders. The proposal, known as the New Class Modernization Program, essentially called for a complete overhaul of the entire New Republic fleet in order to standardize parts, equipment, and control interfaces. With the support of the New Republic Defense Force, the council approved Sigarr's proposal and gave REC the monumental task of implementing the New Class program. The enormity of the program allowed REC to rapidly grow in size as it tackled yet another seemingly impossible job. It necessitated a move of the corporate headquarters from Druckenwell to Ord Mercek in order to accommodate the ambitious project. Sigarr, as always, was confident in the skills of his people, and had plans to capitalize even further on the progress of his company when the time was right. Powerful Progress As the fleet was slowly but steadily standardized, and the benefits of the New Class program became apparent, other companies began to follow REC's lead and design ships that fit within the standards set by the program. The first to roll off the lines was Rendili StarDrive's ''Republic''-class Star Destroyer, followed soon after by Mon Calamari Shipyards' MC90 Star Cruiser. With REC's reputation for quality and craftsmanship firmly established, it was time to initiate the second phase of the New Class program; an entire line-up of new ship designs to replace the aging vessels within the New Republic's navy. The first of these so-called New Class-type ships was the ''Sacheen''-class Light Escort, which rolled off the production lines around 13 ABY. The success of the Sacheen paved the way for others to follow and gave Sigarr the opportunity to dust off some of the designs from the Defender Program to become New Class-types. This culminated in the most celebrated of the new designs to come out of REC: the ''Defender''-class Star Destroyer. By the end of the Xen'Chi War, New Class-types were present in just about every major fleet in the New Republic and the Republic Engineering Corporation had indeed become powerful enough to compete with the major shipyards. New Markets Sigarr took the opportunity to expand REC’s interests even further, launching numerous new ventures designed to expand the company’s market share. He once again partnered with a rival company, this time the Loronar Corporation, to produce the MAS-2xB Self-Propelled Turbolaser, which helped fill a spot in the New Republic’s army for a state-of-the-art heavy artillery weapon. He next launched what he dubbed the “Vintage Line” of products, capitalizing on updated versions of proven spacecraft models that REC owned the patents to, such as the Aurek Tactical Strikefighter and the predecessor to the A-wing, the R-22 Spearhead. The most ambitious result of the Vintage Line was an updated and standardized version of the famous Jedi ship, the Chu’unthor, known as the ''Chu'unthor''-class Praxeum Ship. The first production model of which – called the Skywalker – he gave to the Jedi Order as a gift. This was a canny move to not only help out the Jedi and gain some excellent PR for his company, but also to advertise the somewhat eclectic product to other groups who might be interested. The Republic Engineering Corporation also began its first foray into the droid market with the introduction of the M7-series Combat Protocol Droid. It provided military commanders protocol droids that were not only more durable than the venerable 3PO units, but also lacked the decidedly prissy personality quirks that the 3PO series was known for. Another project to roll off the REC lines was one that was very close to Sigarr’s heart, a performance speeder meant for the civilian market. The AV-22 Landspeeder was an updated and improved version of the AV-21 speeders developed and used by the Rebel Alliance during their early days. It marked a new direction for a company that had made its mark as a military contractor, and would be the first sign that it was moving to become a more versatile company with products for a wide variety of clients. =Current Day= The Republic Engineering Corporation continues to excel in the business world and Sigarr Halomek is always considering new ways to bring more fame and fortune to the company… =Sources= *Wookieepedia Category:Ship Manufacturing CompaniesCategory:Droid ManufacturersCategory:New RepublicCategory:Republic Engineering Corporation